Hannah Revisited - March, June and November

March...

 

 

 



June...



November...



Hannah Revisited - May, August and December

May...



August...

 

 



December...

 

Hannah Revisited - January, October and September

January...



October...

 

 

September...

 

 

Hanafuda Hawaii Style - Extra Large Version

 

 

 

 

I finally got my hands on this poker-sized deck recently.  The fact that the shipping cost (from California* to England) was more than the deck itself is easily forgotten when you see how bright, colourful, detailed and beautiful the cards are!

 

* it would have been nicer if they had been shipped directly from Hawaii! My favourite US state flag by the way.

 

Enjoy...

 

 

 

You also get 8 double-sided player aid cards illustrating the Yaku and basic rules &c for the game of Sakura...

The card backs feature Cherry Blossoms, 'Sakura' - the name of the game!

 

 

For more information visit hanafudahawaii.com

 

 

Koi Koi Strategy

I have been meaning to write a piece on this for awhile but it's difficult to have a comprehensive guide on strategy for Koi Koi, as the game is pretty much 50% skill and 50% luck! Here are a few notes from my experience though...(I hope it makes sense)...

Let's start with 'Skill'.

This is broken into 4 elements that a player needs to consider and analyse. 

1) The cards in his/her hand

2) The cards in the field of play

3) The cards he/she has captured and needs to make scoring hands

4) The cards that his/her opponent has captured and needs to make scoring hands

Generally, a 'good' starting hand would be 8 cards of different suits as you'll be pretty much guaranteed to make a matching pair.

A bad hand would contain a set of triplets and a very bad hand would contain two sets of triplets. Two or three pairs is a pretty poor hand too.

The things that a player cannot control are the cards that his/her opponent holds, how he/she plays them and finally, the order of the cards in the stock pile. This is where 'luck' comes into play.

'Luck'.

This starts from the moment the cards are shuffled and dealt. You can evaluate the cards you have with those in the field of play and of any that have been captured but as said previously, you cannot control how your opponent plays or what cards are drawn each turn.

Due to this 'luck' factor it is always best to make a scoring hand as quickly as possible even if it is a low scoring hand, as this way you win the round (unless you Koi Koi) and stay as (or become) Dealer, giving you the advantage of going first in the next round. Chasing big scoring hands can be hazardous!

Bullet points...

• Always capture the Sake Cup card (unless you can make a bigger scoring hand capturing a different card that turn) as it counts as an extra junk card as well as being a part of the Hanami-zake and Tsukimi-zake scoring hands. A very powerful card.

• Try to stop your opponent from scoring.  This sounds obvious but sometimes a player can be focused only on his/her own cards that he/she has captured and needs, completely forgetting about the cards their opponent has captured/requires.  An example is to make sure that you capture a poetry scroll card and a blue scroll card. Another example is to capture at least one of the cards that make the Boar-Deer-Butterflies hand. Capturing 'Lights' is a given. This way you reduce the number of scoring hands that your opponent can make, restricting them to mostly low scoring hands.

• It is generally a good strategy to capture scroll cards as you can make four* different scoring hands with them.

• If you are unable to match a suit with a card from your hand with one in the field of play, then you need to place a card on the table that will do the least amount of damage to you. This usually means playing a junk card as you don't want to be laying down a high value card if you can help it.  The best junk cards to play are those of the April and May suits as none of their higher value cards are used to make big scoring hands. The times that it is generally acceptable to play a high value card you can't pair are a) if it is the last card in your hand and b) if you hold another card of the same suit in your hand and the other two cards of that suit have already been captured. 

• Being the Dealer gives you control of the cards and the advantage of going first each round. It's stating the obvious but if you always stay as Dealer, you won't lose! 

• Don't always chase the big scoring hands, it's better to make a low hand and stop, rather than hoping to get a big hand (unless you are playing a limited number of rounds and are chasing the game).

• Sometimes when your cards are running out you will have to try and play for the draw/tie (unless the Dealer's Privilege rule is in effect and your opponent is the Dealer). You could find yourself in a situation where you are nowhere near making any sort of hand (whilst your opponent is), so your best bet is to frustrate your opponent by evaluating what cards they have captured and then by trying to capture the cards that they need.

• As there are many different scoring systems and optional rules in Koi Koi, always agree on them prior to playing.

• Risk and Reward - The higher the risk, the greater the reward (just like real life). Not so great if you lose though! Sometimes you just have to know when to stop.

• If you're playing for money then just bet what you can afford to lose. Gamble responsibly!

• Each game of Koi Koi is different but by utilising your experience and judgement, with a little bit of luck, you should do okay! ;)

• Have fun!

 * capturing all poetry scroll cards and all blue scroll cards counts as a scoring hand in its own right.


Card Hierarchy

Tier 1

Crane, Curtain*, Harvest Moon*, Phoenix, Sake Cup*

* these being 'first among equals'.

Tier 2

Poetry Scrolls, Blue Scrolls, Boar, Deer, Butterflies

Tier 3

All other Scroll and Animal cards

Tier 4

Rain man

This may seem controversial as it is a 'Light' card but you can only make two of the higher scoring hands with it.

Tier 5

Junk



PS If I think of anything else, I'll add to it.

Hanafuda Koi Koi by Robin Red Games

I imported this from Le Puy in Allassac, Limousin, central France. These are the first French designed and made deck of flower cards that I have seen.  You get the standard 48 cards plus 2 Jokers, 5 Koi Koi 'Player Aid' cards (in French x2, English, Spanish and German) as well as a Koi Koi rule book. The cards measure 87mm x 56mm and retail for 12 Euro plus shipping.  There are few little issues though...
 

 

The illustrations are attractive and they pretty much follow the look and feel of the traditional 'hachihachibana' pattern.

 

The card backs feature a Dragon...

 

One interesting design feature (which I like) is the use of symbols to help beginners learn the different scoring hands.  Note that the symbols are for the game of Koi Koi only.

 

 

There really should be a yellow 'Junk' symbol on the Sake Cup card as it counts both as an 'Animal' card and a 'Junk' card.

 

 

Player Aid cards (for Koi Koi)...

 

 

Another great idea but there is a typo on the English language card.  It should be 'Boar' and not 'Bear'!  I am sure that will be sorted out for future reprints.  'Man' shouldn't be included in Sanko either. You get 5 cards (2 are in French).

 

 

I think that Hanami would have looked better in pink and Ame-Shiko in dark grey or black. The only scoring difference I use here is 6pts for Sanko.

 

The Jokers...

 

 

Lights and Sake Cup...

 

You can't make Sanko with the Rain-man card (as the card indicates here). You can only make Ame-Shiko and Goko with it.
 

I love the Rabbit in the Harvest Moon...

 

 

 

November's storm card - My favourite card and design!

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you Robin Red Games!

 

 

These cards can be purchased at Robin Red Games here...

http://www.robinredgames.com/fiche-Hanafuda-184.html

Project Hannah Hanafuda - The Final Cut

Project Hannah is primarily my response to the general lack of variety of Hanafuda out there.  In recent times we have seen an explosion in the sheer variety of so called 'Western' or 'Poker' playing cards available.  The designs and artwork employed in these are often innovative and breath-taking.  Now of course many artists/designers don't do this sort of thing just for fun, they like to make a few pennies out of the enterprise too.  Project Hannah isn't a commercially available deck, it has just been a labour of love for me.

 

I am not a professional artist nor pretend to be but I have always appreciated Art and Design, whether it be paintings, drawings, sculpture, architecture or graphic design.  One area of design that I have a deep interest in is Heraldry (and by extension also logos, symbols, emblems and flags).  My first decision in designing the deck was the general look and feel of it.  Japanese 'heraldry' developed independently and in isolation of European heraldry but it shares many characteristics.  Japanese 'heraldry' is quite simplistic when compared to all the different elements that comprise European heraldry but this doesn't make it any less beautiful.  It seemed a perfect fit!  Interestingly enough I found that I could pretty much source all of my deck from Japanese Kamon.

 

So I went ahead and designed an initial 48 cards.  I toyed with the idea of each card having an unique design but this seemed labour intensive and unnecessary as was my idea of each suit having a single dominant colour as I think I would have run out of colours pretty quickly!  Hanafuda are very popular in Korea where the cards are called Hwatu.  Korean decks pretty much follow the look of the traditional 'hachihachibana' Japanese pattern but the decks also include Bonus/Joker cards.  The designs and uses of these cards differ from deck to deck and from maker to maker.  As I own both Hanafuda and Hwatu decks and the fact that I have visited both countries, I decided to include these bonus cards albeit with Japanese designs.

 

I was pretty excited when my printed cards dropped through my letter box.  At last I had a real life deck as opposed to one that just existed on my computer or in cyberspace. I wasn't expecting HD but some of the images looked better than others and that was more to do with my formatting than the printing process. This was one of the triggers that made me want to revisit some of my designs. That deck is now my 'prototype deck'. This is about my 'Final' deck - a fusion deck, where 'East' meets 'West' and 'Old' meets 'New'.

Card Backs

Nintendo's card backs come in two colours - plain black or ochre.  I prefer black so my card backs are just that, plain black.  If this deck was commercially available then I probably would extend the colour range to ochre, red and blue backs as well.

 

Lights

Animals

Scrolls
 

A new design element that I introduced was for the scroll cards.  During gameplay I tend to stack my captured cards so only the extreme left side of the cards are mainly seen.  Due to this I decided to use coloured stripes on the left hand side of the cards to represent the scrolls.  This way you can see at a glance what coloured scroll cards you have.  I also changed the colour scheme of the traditional scroll cards to match the scheme employed in one of my Korean made decks:

 

x3 plain red for the red poetry scroll cards

x3 plain blue for blue scroll cards

x3 plain green for the 3 plain red scroll cards

x1 plain yellow for the November scroll card

 

 

 

 

January - Black Pine

My main concern here was to give the cards a 'wintry' look and feel.  The white backgrounds represent the snow and they provide the perfect contrast to the black Pines.  The junk cards mirror each other which is a theme that runs through most (but not all) of this deck. A splash of red completes the look. ;)

 

February - Plum Blossoms

A simple yet beautiful colour scheme (just like many of the Japanese city and prefectural flags).  White represents snow and the grey is just there to give precedence to the red stripe.

 

March - Cherry Blossoms

The only design brief here was 'pink' and lots of it! Oh and the flowers had to be in different colours to the February cards. I don't know why but newcomers to Hanafuda always seem to confuse the Plum blossoms with the Cherry blossoms and vice versa. 

 

April - Wisteria

Here I just used some of the colours that Wisteria is available in. I also tried to convey a sense of tranquillity and of the evening.

 

 

May - Iris

A mainly blue and subdued colour scheme unlike the real life flowers.  No plank bridge in view. One just has to imagine that one is stood on the edge of the bridge admiring the flowers. ;)

 

 

 

June - Peony

Bright and vibrant...just like Peonies!  The red background of the Butterflies card represents a Peony flower as does the circular design. The scroll card is a bit more subdued to give precedence to the blue stripe.

 

 

July - Bush Clover

Where is the Boar?  He is in the bush clover somewhere, probably asleep. Honest!  Truth is I couldn't find a Boar in any bona fide Japanese Kamon. Just call it artistic licence. There is also a bit of a coffee coloured theme going on. ;)

 

August - Pampas Grass

This suit gave me a few things to think about.  I thought about using mainly warm, vibrant summery colours or a midnight blue theme but I decided to generally stick with the traditional theme and colours of the suit.   Now I know that the Harvest Moon is a full Moon but I decided to use a crescent Moon as it looks more dramatic than a round circle. Artistic licence.

 

 

September - Chrysanthemum

A month of transition when Summer fades into Autumn.  The scroll card reflects this transition, whilst the bright yellow and blue in the junk cards are just pure Summer.  The over-sized Sake Cup represents its special status as both an 'animal' and 'junk' card and its use in making the Blossom Viewing and Moon Viewing scoring hands in the game of Koi-Koi.  A very powerful card indeed.

 

October - Maple

This month is traditionally the first full month of Autumn in the northern hemisphere and the cards represent the colours associated with the season; brown, red, yellow and green.  For the junk cards we have red on the left, green on the right (for Port and Starboard) whilst the scroll card has the maple leaf pointing downwards as if it's ready to 'fall'. 

 

 

November - Willow

 

This suit is more commonly known as 'Rain' (Ame) in Japan and the grey backgrounds reflect this. It is also my birth month.  The Umbrella was an obvious choice as this card is used to make the yaku 'Ame-Shiko' (Rainy Four Lights) in the game of Koi-Koi.  The scroll card depicts Willow but it also represents the 'brush strokes' of the Calligrapher 'Ono no Michikaze' (the usual main subject depicted on the November Light card).  The Junk card depicts the usual lightning and rain and keeps the traditional red and black colour scheme. It also looks like some sort of demonic face mask.

 

 

 

December - Paulownia

Just purple, well mainly...

 

 

The Extra Cards

As previously mentioned these cards are only included and used in Korean decks and their intended uses differ from deck to deck. Many Korean players ignore what's on the cards and use them whichever way they see fit.

 

+1 Junk card (Single Hollyhock that resembles an Ace of Spades reflecting that the cards are also Poker sized)

+2 Junk cards (Two Rabbits - I was born in the Year of the Rabbit and both are facing each other, East meeting West)

+3 Junk cards (Three Sake Cups - This represents the 3 of Cups found in a Tarot deck. A card of celebration and accomplishment). Tarot decks - another interest of mine.

+7 Junk cards (Seven stars of the 'Big Dipper' constellation - This card represents my vast interest in the Universe)

Light card (The Sun - This recalls the iconic Japanese Naval Ensign)
Double Junk Rain card

Colours

Some of the colours used for individual cards were specifically chosen to represent some of the Prefectures and/or Cities that I have visited in Japan. 

Phoenix (Purple and White) - Tokyo Prefecture and Beppu
January/Pine suit (White background) - Hokkaido Prefecture (The flags of Sapporo, Otaru and Chitose have a White field)
3 Sake Cups (Purple and Yellow) - Kyoto Prefecture
Sake Cup (White and Red) Yokohama/Kanagawa Prefecture, Nagasaki and Nagoya
Harvest Moon (Red and White) - Hiroshima Prefecture
Crane (White, Black and Red) - Kagoshima Prefecture
Maple Junk card (Green and White) - Kobe, Morioka, Himeji and Tochigi Prefecture
Bush Warbler (Blue and White) - Osaka Prefecture
December Junk card (White and Purple) - Fukuoka